Are keyless drill chucks a compromise?

For decades every drill chuck had a chuck key. Then out of nowhere appeared keyless chucks. The keyless chucks seem to work pretty well. But do they grip as well? If so, this is a case of a better idea replacing the original. But if not, then we would continue to see chuck keys on hardworking drill presses. Anybody have any information on this?

I've never had a problem with keyless chucks, I have however experienced losing the key for the keyed chucks. The beauty of keyless chucks is the speed of changing out bits without having to fumble with a key. There are manufactures of drill presses now that are keyless, but I imagine that the speed and power of the drill press is the reason why they are still primarily keyed.

I own two keyless chucks. One works very well and I have no complaints. The other doesn't work well and is frustrating. However, neither are in a drill press. My drill press has a keyed chuck. I can't imagine even my good keyless chuck holding up to the workload of a drill press.

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For 'hobby' use, keyless chucks are just fine. For bigger drills and larger bits (higher torque loadings) they start to become inadequate. After all, there is only so tight you can do a chuck up by hand, because you need to be able to undo it again, also by hand. Bigger 'real' commercial drills and drill presses definitely favour keyed chucks, as they can be done up much tighter and therefore are capable of transmitting much higher torque before slipping.

Source(s): I am a qualified diesel technician - and let me tell you, drillng 32 16mm holes in a high tensile bit of 8mm thick Volvo truck chassis rail was NOT a good way to spend an hour and a half laying on my back...

I would suggest that you keep your key operated chuck. The keyless chucks do not work as well. You cannot get the drill bits tight enough and they tend to slip. I have had to buy special drills with flats so that they do not slip; however, you cannot buy these special bits for the smaller sizes.

Chuckless Drills are Superior when it comes to light duty work and where BIT changing are more frequent...

Having worked many years in machine shop environment,very Rare you will see Chuckless drills ,unless it is light duty work like the Cordless/Battery operated ones.

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Anonymous

1 decade ago

I have tried them, they are quicker, but they do slip, I find it helps to have two drills because often you need to drill a smaller pilot hole first or you may have a screw bot in the other ready to fasten a drywall screw or self tapping that works better when you drill a pilot for it first. A punch awl Works also on most material surfaces.

Source(s): When you lose a chuck key, the cost of a replacement is out of proportion to the cost of the drill motor itself.